Ijaw People: Man know thy Brothers.Obolo-Celebrate this tribe today

                                                              Ijaw Status

Something to remember in history

Ijaw people (also known by the subgroups "Ijo" or "Izon") are a collection of peoples indigenous to the Niger Delta in Nigeria, inhabiting regions of the states of Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Ondo, Akwa Ibom and Rivers. Many are found as migrant fishermen in camps as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon. Population figures for the Ijo vary greatly, though most range from 12 million to 15 million. They have long lived in locations near many sea trade routes, and they were well connected to other areas by trade as early as the 15th century.

Language

The Ijaw speak nine closely related Niger–Congo languages, all of which belong to the Ijoid branch of the Niger–Congo tree. The primary division between the Ijo languages is that between Eastern Ijo and Western Ijo, the most important of the former group of languages being Izon, which is spoken by about five million people.

There are two prominent groupings of the Izon language. The first, termed either Western or Central Izon (Ijaw) consists of Western Ijaw speakers: Tuomo Clan, Ekeremor, Sagbama (Mein), Bassan, Apoi, Arogbo, Boma (Bumo), Kabo (Kabuowei), Ogboin, Tarakiri, and Kolokuma-Opokuma. Nembe, Brass and Akassa (Akaha) dialects represent Southeast Ijo (Izon). Buseni and Okordia dialects are considered Inland Ijo.

The other major Ijaw linguistic group is Kalabari. Kalabari is considered an Eastern Ijaw language but the term "Eastern Ijaw" is not the normal nomenclature. Kalabari is the name of one of the Ijaw clans that reside on the eastern side of the Niger-Delta (Abonnema, Buguma, Bakana, Degema etc.) who form a major group in Rivers State, Other "Eastern" Ijaw clans are the Andoni, Okrika, Ibani (the natives of Bonny, Finima and Opobo) and Nkoroo. They are neighbours to the Kalabari people in present-day Rivers State, Nigeria.

Other related Ijaw subgroups which have distinct languages but very close kinship, cultural and territorial ties with the rest of the Ijaw are the Epie-Atissa, Engenni (also known as Ẹgẹnẹ), and Degema (also called Udekama or Udekaama). The Ogbia clan, as well as residents of Bukuma and Abuloma (Obulom).

It was discovered in the 1980s that a now extinct Berbice Creole Dutch, spoken in Guyana, is partly based on Ijo lexicon and grammar. Its nearest relative seems to be Eastern Ijo, most likely Kalabari (Kouwenberg 1994).

Clans

The Ijaw ethnic group consists of 50 loosely affiliated clans. These clans are based along kinship lines and/or shared cultural and religious traditions.

Name	State	Alternate Names
Akassa	Bayelsa	Akaha, Akasa
Andoni	Rivers/Akwa Ibom (Andoni/Eastern Obolo)	Obolo
Apoi (Eastern)	Bayelsa
Apoi (Western)	Ondo
Arogbo	Ondo
Bassan	Bayelsa	Basan
Bille	Rivers	Bile, Bili
Bumo	Bayelsa	Boma, Bomo
Bonny	Rivers	Ibani, Uban
Buseni	Bayelsa	Biseni
Egbema	Delta/Edo
Operemor	Delta/Bayelsa	Operemor, Ekeremo,Ojobo
Ekpetiama	Bayelsa
Engenni	Rivers	Ngeni
Epie-Atissa	Bayelsa
Furupagha	Edo/ Ondo
Gbaranmatu	Delta	Gbaranmatu
Gbaran	Bayelsa	Gbarain
Iduwini	Bayelsa/Delta
Isaba	Delta
Kabo	Delta	Kabowei, Kabou
Kalabari	Rivers
Kolokuma	Bayelsa
Kou	Bayelsa
Kula	Rivers
Kumbo	Delta	Kumbowei
Mein	Delta/Bayelsa
Nembe	Bayelsa
Nkoro	Rivers	Kala Kirika
Obotebe	Delta
Odimodi	Delta
Ogbe	Delta	Ogbe-Ijoh
Ogbia	Bayelsa
Ogboin	Bayelsa
Ogulagha	Delta	Ogula
Okordia	Bayelsa	Okodia, Akita
Okrika	Rivers	Wakirike
Olodiama (East)	Bayelsa
Olodiama (West)	Edo
Opobo	Rivers
Opokuma	Bayelsa
Oporoma	Bayelsa	Oporomo
Oruma	Bayelsa	Tugbene
Oyakiri	Bayelsa	Beni
Seimbiri	Delta
Tarakiri (East)	Bayelsa
Tarakiri (West)	Delta
Tungbo	Bayelsa
Tuomo	Delta
Ukomu	Edo
Zarama	Bayelsa

Traditional Occupations

The Ijaw were one of the first of Nigeria's peoples to have contact with Westerners, and were active as go-betweens in the slave trade between visiting Europeans and the peoples of the interior, particularly in the era before the discovery of quinine, when West Africa was still known as the "White Man's Graveyard" because of the endemic presence of malaria. Some of the kin-based trading lineages that arose among the Ijaw developed into substantial corporations which were known as "houses"; each house had an elected leader as well as a fleet of war canoes for use in protecting trade and fighting rivals. The other main occupation common among the Ijaw has traditionally been fishing and farming.

Being a maritime people, many Ijaws were employed in the merchant shipping sector in the early and mid-20th century (pre-Nigerian independence). With the advent of oil and gas exploration in their territory, some are employed in that sector. Other main occupation are in the civil service of the Nigerian states of Bayelsa and Rivers where they are predominant.

Extensive state-government sponsored overseas scholarship programs in the 1970s and 1980s have also led to a significant presence of Ijaw professionals in Europe and North America (the so-called Ijaw diaspora). Another contributing factor to this human capital flight is the abject poverty in their homeland of the Niger Delta, resulting from decades of neglect by the Nigerian government and oil companies in spite of continuous petroleum prospecting in this region since the 1950s.

Lifestyle

The Ijaw people live by fishing supplemented by farming paddy-rice, plantains, yams, cocoyams, bananas and other vegetables as well as tropical fruits such as guava, mangoes and pineapples; and trading. Smoke-dried fish, timber, palm oil and palm kernels are processed for export. While some clans (those to the east- Akassa, Nembe, Kalabari, Okrika and Bonny) had powerful chiefs and a stratified society, other clans are believed not to have had any centralized confederacies until the arrival of the British. However, owing to influence of the neighbouring Kingdom of Benin individual communities even in the western Niger Delta also had chiefs and governments at the village level.

Marriages are completed by the payment of a bridal dowry, which increases in size if the bride is from another village (so as to make up for that village's loss of her children). Funeralceremonies, particularly for those who have accumulated wealth and respect, are often very dramatic. Traditional religious practices center around "Water spirits" in the Niger river, and around tribute to ancestors.